led her. Through the intervening years I had tried
never to think of this painful episode, and, with two little boys
playing at my knee, had well nigh forgotten the first child that had
come. Mention of the dead and buried past now made me resentful.

"'Why do you speak thus?' I asked, angrily.

"'Because, my lord,' exclaimed my wife, dropping on her knees at my
feet, yet with the little child still pressed to her breast, and drawing
me down to her with her free hand, so that we were all three close
together, 'because, oh, my lord, in our arms now this very moment is our
first-born, our daughter. We spared her, Rakaya and I; we bribed Runjit,
who is now dead, and to whom you gave the terrible orders, and Rakaya
smuggled the babe safe away to the cottage of the woodcutters. Since
then I have managed to see her sometimes by stealth, and have loved her;
but I have never dared to clothe her in any but humble garments--no
silks, no bangles, no jewels of any kind--lest suspicion should be
aroused.'

"'Oh, great master, forgive your humble slave,' moaned the old crone,
Rakaya, grovelling in a corner of the room.

"But to my wife only I paid heed. 'Can this be?' I murmured, surprised
and deeply moved.

"'She is our very own, our little girl.' And back into my arms she
placed the child, whose tresses I straightway fell to fondling, as her
sweet, trustful eyes looked up into mine, beaming with love as if she
had indeed long before divined in her heart that I was her father and
her natural protector.

"'And, oh, my dear lord,' continued my wife, her eyes brimming with
tears, 'thou knowest now it was to save thee that, in the mysterious
workings of fate, this little child was saved.'"

The Rajput paused in his story, bending his head to hide the emotion
that caused his lips to tremble. "A month later," he went on, softly, "a
little sister was born to Brenda, and only last year a third daughter
came to our home. And all, as I have said, are well beloved."

The speaker's face was now upraised. The soldierly sternness had gone
out of it: it shone only with paternal pride and love as he added:

"To-day Brenda, our first-born, is the light of my home, and a year
hence she will be married to the Rajah of Jodhpur, to make the heart of
that great and noble prince of the Rajputs happy for ever-more."

And so ended the Rajput's tale.

* * * * *

There was silence for a time, broken at last by the